Copying apparatus

ABSTRACT

A copying apparatus of the type in which a fluorescent tube lamp is rotated by an endless belt, and a document and a photosensitive copy sheet are passed in superposed relation to each other between the outer peripheral surface of said fluorescent tube lamp and said endless belt, whereby the image on the document is copied on the copy sheet; wherein upper and lower rollers are rotatably mounted with their stub shafts rotatably received in upper and lower slits formed in the opposite side walls of a frame structure, and the fluorescent tube lamp is supported at its opposite ends by bearings slidably received in middle slits formed in said side walls. Each bearing has disposed therein a rotor provided with electrode receiving holes in which the electrodes at each end of the fluorescent tube lamp are received.

United States Patent 1 Nagai COPYING APPARATUS [75] inventor: Nobuo Nagai, Yamatokoriyama-shi,

Japan [73] Assignee: Nintendo Co., Ltd., Kyoto, Japan [22] Filed: Dec. 8, 1971 [21] Appl. No.: 205,932

[30] Foreign Application Priority Data May 29, 1971 Japan ..46/44298 [52] US. Cl ..355/110, 355/104 [51] Int. Cl. ..G03b 27/10 [58] Field of Search ..355/1 l0, 104, 108, 355/109, 88

[56] References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 3/l959 5/1970 Murcas et al ..355/99 Ellis ..355/110 7 Apr. 17, 1973 Primary ExaminerRichard L. Moses Attorney-Karl W. Flocks 57 ABSTRACT A copying apparatus of the type in which a fluorescent tube lamp is rotated by an endless belt, and a document and a photosensitive copy sheet are passed in superposed relation to each other between the outer peripheral surface of said fluorescent tube lamp and said endless belt, whereby the image on the document is copied on the copy sheet; wherein upper and lower rollers are rotatably mounted with their stub shafts rotatably received in upper and lower slits formed in the opposite side walls of a frame structure, and the fluorescent tube lamp is supported at its opposite ends by bearings slidably received in middle slits formed in said side walls. Each bearing has disposed therein a rotor provided with electrode receiving holes in which the electrodes at each end of the fluorescent tube lamp are received.

4 Claims, 6 Drawing Figures PATENTED APR 1 H975 SHEET 2 OF 3 PATENTED APRI 71975 SHEET 3 [IF 3 m gm COPYING APPARATUS BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION fluorescent tube lamp is rotated, whereby the image on said document is copied on said photosensitive copy paper. I

2. Description of the Prior Art Conventional copying apparatus .of the type described have had the disadvantages thatthe con- 3, with their stub shaft 8, 8 and 10, received in the upper slits 4, 4 and the lower slits 5, 5 respectively. A

struction'is complicated and hence much time and I labor are required for the disassembly and assembly of the apparatus at the time of cleaning or repair of the component parts, and that it is difficult to maintain the fluorescent tube lampand the belt in tight engagement with each other regardless of the thicknesses of the document to' be copied and the photosensitive copy paper. A further disadvantage of these prior art apparatus is that the fluorescent tube lamp usable in the SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention has for its object the provision of a copying apparatus which has excellent performance and can be produced economically.

A preferred embodimentof the invention will be described hereinafter with reference to the accompanying drawings.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS FIG. 1 is a plan view, partially broken away, of an embodiment of the copying apparatus according to the invention, with a top cover and a front panel removed;

FIG. 2 is an enlarged sectional view taken along the line II II of FIG. 1, with the top cover placed in position; I

FIG. 3 is an enlarged sectional view taken along the line III III of FIG. 1, with thetop cover placed in position; 1

FIG. 4 is a side elevational view of the inner surface of the fluorescent tube lamp bearing;

FIG. 5 is a front elevational view of the bearing; and

FIG. 6 is a side elevational view of the outer surface of the bearing.

. DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT Referring to the drawings, there is shown a preferred embodiment of the copying apparatus according to the invention. The apparatus includes an appearance cabinet 1 and aframe structure 2 having side walls 3, 3 and secured to said cabinet 1. The side walls 3, 3, as shown in FIGS. 2 and 3, and provided with upper slits 4, lower slits 5 and middle slits 6 respectively, each in registration with each other. An upper roller 7 and a lower roller 9 are rotatably mounted in the side walls 3,

fluorescent tube lamp 1] is supported at its opposite ends by a pair of bearings 14, 14 each of which has disposed therein a rotor 13 formed with holes 12, 12' for receiving the positive and negative electrodes of the fluorescent tube lamp 11, and also has a stopper wall 15 connected to the outer surface thereof in a manner to define a substantially U-shaped grooves 16 therebetween,. as shown in FIGS. 4 through 6. The bearings 14, 14 are slidably mounted in the middle slits 6,6 of the side walls 3, 3, with the edge of said slits received in the substantially Ushaped grooves 16 of said bearings. Thus, it will be seen that the fluorescent tube lamp 1 l is rotatable with the opposite ends thereof supported by the side walls 3, 3, of the frame structure, and emits a fluorescent light by being supplied with a current through the rotors 13 even when said rotors 13 are rotating. 7

As shown in FIGS. 1 and 3, a gear 18 is fixedly mounted on a shaft 17 which is operatively connected to an electric motor. This gear 18 is in meshing engagement with a gear 19. The gear 19 and a driving roller 20 are coaxially mounted on a shaft 2l which is rotatably supported at its opposite ends by the side walls 3, 3, of the frame structure 2. One or a plurality of endless belts 22 are engaged around the fluorescent tube lamp 11, the upper and lower rollers 8, 9 and the driving roller 20 as shown in FIG. 3 A front panel 23 detachably fitted to the front opening of the cabinet 1 has a slot 24 formed therein and a horizontal guide plate 25 is attached to the lower edge of said slot 24 integrally with the front panel 23, with the one edge projecting outwardly from said front paneland the other end projecting inwardly of the cabinet. Inwardly of the front panel '23 is provided a pivotable partition plate 26 having a substantiallyv V-shaped cross-section, with the flexed edge thereof located within the slot 24 of the front panel 23, said partition plate serving simultaneously as a light shielding plate. I

The apparatus of the invention constructed as described above operates in the following manner: Namely, when the electric motor is set in motion, the gear 18 mounted on the shaft 17 rotates. causing the gear 19 in meshing engagement therewith to rotate. Therefore, the driving roller 20 coaxial with the gear 19 rotates and causes the endless belt '22 to travel therearound, whereby the upper roller 8, the fluorescent tube lamp l1 and the lower roller 9 rotate concurrently. When a document and a copy sheet are inserted in superposed relation to each other into the gap between the guide plate 25 and the partition plate 26 through the slot 24 of the front panel 23, under such condition, they are caughtbetween the belt 22 and the fluorescent tube lamp 11 and carried around the fluorescent tube lamp 11 while being clamped'between the outer peripheral surface of said fluorescent tube lamp 11 and the endless belt 22. The copy sheet during passage around the outer peripheral surface of the posed copy sheet is discharged to the outside through J the slot 24 together with the document.

In the present invention, as described above, the stub shafts 8', 10 of the upper and lower rollers 7, 9 are received in the upper and lower slits 4, 5 in the side walls 3, 3 of the frame structure 2 respectively, and the bearings 14 supporting the opposite ends of the rotating fluorescent tube lamp 11 are also received in the middle slits 6 in said side walls 3, 3. Therefore, theapparatus of the invention has the advantages that the positional accuracy of the stub shafts 8, of the upper and lower rollers 7, 9 and the bearings 14 for the fluorescent tube lamp 11 relative to the frame structure 2 is not required and that the structure of the frame structure can be simplified. Further, by arranging the upper and lower rollers 7, 9 such that the distance therebetween becomes smaller than the diameter of the fluorescent tube lamp 11 and adjusting the length of the endless belt 22 such that the fluorescent tube lamp 11 is located in the close proximity of the upper and lower rollers 7, 9, the effective use of the outer peripheral surface of said fluorescent tube lamp 11 becomes possible and hence the photosensitive paper exposing efficiency can be enhanced. The forward movement of the fluorescent tube lamp 11 is limited by the upper and lower rollers 7, 9, so that it is unnecessary to fix the bearings 14 to hold said fluorescent tube lamp against forward movement. The total length of the belt 22'is fixed and, therefore, the upper roller 7 or the lower roller 9 or both are always returned to its or their original position or positions by the belt after said roller or rollers are caused temporarily to move forward by the document and the photosensitive copy sheet inserted between the flurescent tube lamp 11 and the belt 22. Therefore, it will be appreciated that in the apparatus of the invention, the fluorescent tube lamp 11 and the belt 22 are maintained in tight engagement with each other, regardless of the thicknesses of the document and the photosensitive copy sheet. The tight engagement between the fluorescent tube lamp 1] and the belt 22 can be further improved by using an elastic rubber belt for the belt 22. The construction of the apparatus according to the invention in which the upper and lower rollers 7, 9 are mounted with the stub shafts 8, l0 receivedin the upper and lower slits 4, 5 and the bearings 14, which are provided at the opposite ends of the lamp 11, mounted within the middle slits 6, as described above, also has the advantage of facilitating the assembly and disassembly of the apparatus during manufacture and repair work. This enables the copying apparatus of the invention to be manufactured economically. Despite of such a simple construction, the apparatus of the invention has an excellent performance. It is also to be noted that, since in' the present invention the fluorescent tube lamp 11 is supported by the rotors 13 of the bearings 14, which are each formed with the holes l2, 12 for receiving the electrodes of said tube lamp, the fluorescent tube lamp usable in the apparatus of the invention is not restrictcd only to one having base metals ofa specific configuration but fluorescent tube lamps having ordinary types photosensitive copy sheet comprising a frame structure having side walls,

said side walls having upper slits, lower slits, and middle slits each in registration with each other,

a fluorescent tube lamp having electrodes extending therefrom,

rotors having electrode receiving holes receiving said electrodes and supporting said fluorescent tube thereby,

bearings containing said rotors therein and each hav ing an outer stopper wall connected to the outer surface thereof to define a substantially U-shaped groove therebetween, with said substantially U- shaped groove slidably received in each of said middle slits whereby said fluorescent tube lamp emits a light when supplied with current through one of said rotors even during rotation of said rotors,

a first guide roller having a stub shaft rotatably and freely slidably received in said upper slits in a direction to press against said fluorescent tube lamp,

a second guide roller having a stub shaft rotatably and freely slidably received in said lower slits in a direction to press against said fluorescent tube lamp,

belt means positioned to pass over said guide rollers and around said fluorescent tube lamp between said guide rollers and said lamp,

a driving roller disposed apart from said fluorescent tube lamp having a diameter larger than that of said guide roller and connected to said guide rollers and said fluorescent tube lamp by said belt means whereby the document and the photosensitive copy sheet are moved in tight contact with said fluorescent tube lamp without any distortion or slippage between the document and the .copy sheet.

2. The copying apparatus of claim 1, further characterized by said belt means being a plurality ofendless belts. I

3. The copying apparatus of claim 2, further characterized by said upper and lower slits having a slope in a direction directed substantially toward said fluorescent tube lamp and said middle slits in each of said walls respectively.

4. The copying apparatus of claim 2, further characterized by said plurality of endless belts being of an elastic material. 

1. A copying apparatus for receiving a document and a photosensitive copy sheet passed in superposed relation to each other over the surface of a fluorescent lamp to copy the image of the document onto the photosensitive copy sheet comprising a frame structure having side walls, said side walls having upper slits, lower slits, and middle slits each in registration with each other, a fluorescent tube lamp having electrodes extending therefrom, rotors having electrode receiving holes receiving said electrodes and supporting said fluorescent tube thereby, bearings containing said rotors therein and each having an outer stopper wall connected to the outer surface thereof to define a substantially U-shaped groove therebetween, with said substantially U-shaped groove slidably received in each of said middle slits whereby said fluorescent tube lamp emits a light when supplied with current through one of said rotors even during rotation of said rotors, a first guide roller having a stub shaft rotatably and freely slidably received in said upper slits in a direction to press against said fluorescent tube lamp, a second guide roller having a stub shaft rotatably and freely slidably received in said lower slits in a direction to press against said fluorescent tube lamp, belt means positioned to pass over said guide rollers and around said fluorescent tube lamp between said guide rollers and said lamp, a driving roller disposed apart from said fluorescent tube lamp having a diameter larger than that of said guide roller and connected to said guide rollers and said fluorescent tube lamp by said belt means whereby the document and the photosensitive copy sheet are moved in tight contact with said fluorescent tube lamp without any distortion or slippage between the document and the copy sheet.
 2. The copying apparatus of claim 1, further characterized by said belt means being a plurality of endless belts.
 3. The copying apparatus of claim 2, further characterized by said upper and lower slits having a slope in a direction directed substantially toward said fluorescent tube lamp and said middle slits in each of said walls respectively.
 4. The copying apparatus of claim 2, further characterized by said plurality of endless belts being of an elastic material. 